A Nature-Based Toolkit to Support the Dying

Session 1

The Room Has Always Known

Introducing the green witch tradition, the dying room, and the plants that have always been there.

• Who the green witch is: not fringe, not theatrical. The woman who knows things.
• Stregheria and the Italian lineage: agricultural, earth-based, passed grandmother to granddaughter
• Why nature-based practice belongs in death work: the nervous system, the environment, the room
• The four-element altar: light, plant, stone, water. Starting the toolkit.
• Plant medicine for the dying room: lavender, rosemary, salt, mugwort (introduction)
• Science alongside the old ways: what the research actually says about plant aromatherapy and the dying
• Practice: building your first vigil altar
• Closing ritual: lighting a candle for someone who is crossing or has crossed

Session 2

What the Body Knows

Deep plant work, the science of transition, and what happens at the threshold.

• The herb compendium for the dying: going deeper with each plant
• Lavender: the full science, the full history, practical application in the room
• Rosemary: memory, grief, Continuing Bonds Theory, and why we carry it to the grave
• Mugwort: the liminal herb, dreaming, the in-between, and how to work with it
• Additional plants: yarrow, thyme, elderflower, what each one carries
• Making simple preparations: bundles, teas, oils, sachets. Nothing that requires a cauldron.
• The death room as sensory medicine: sound, scent, touch, light
• Practice: building a grief-specific herb bundle for a client or family member
• Discussion: when clients or families are hesitant. How to offer without imposing.

Session 3

Rites, Rituals, and the Traditions That Held This

Death rites from Stregheria and beyond, body preparation, and the sacred practices that have always lived at the threshold.

• What ritual actually is: a process, a vehicle, a way of saying this moment is sacred
• What we lost when we handed death to institutions, and how we get it back
• The ancestor altar in practice: building one, maintaining one, using one in grief work
• Saying their name: the research on speaking the names of the dead and its effect on grief outcomes
• Body preparation as sacred practice: washing, wrapping, the shroud
• Keening and vocalized mourning: what the body needs to do with grief
• Sitting vigil: not fixing, not managing. Just witnessing.
• Practice: designing a simple threshold ritual for a current or upcoming client
• Discussion: navigating family and cultural differences at the deathbed

Session 4

The Green Burial and the Body's Return

Green and natural burial options, wrapping the body, ecological death care, and building your complete threshold practice.

• The body as a gift back to the earth: the green witch understanding of what death is
• Green burial in practice: shrouds, simple graves, natural cemeteries, human composting
• What is legal, what is available, what it costs. The practical knowledge doulas need.
• How to support a family who wants to participate in body preparation and burial
• Wrapping a body: how it is done, what it means, how to guide a family through it
• Green burial conversations: how to raise the option without imposing a framework
• Building your complete green witch toolkit: what goes in your bag, your practice, your presence
• Your threshold practice: making it personal, making it sustainable, making it yours
• Live integration: participants share one piece they are taking into their practice
• Closing: the ending is a beginning. Sending the cohort out.